As events evolve and additional scenarios arise, these Frequently-Asked-Questions will be updated. Please check back for edits and new additions. Also see the Information for Investigators and Institutions page for additional resources.

Additional questions/concerns may be addressed to David Curren or Scott Cooper at NIH Grants Hurricane Recovery by phone at 301-435-0949 or via e-mail at nihghr@nih.gov.

Specific questions regarding an on-going project should be directed toward the affiliated Program Officer at the awarding Institute or Center. The NIH E-Mail Directory may be found at http://ned.nih.gov/. NIH program and grants management officials for active grants in New Orleans are available at: http://era.nih.gov/userreports/active_org.cfm

For general information about the NIH response to Hurricane Katrina, please reference the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Information website (specifically for investigators and institutions) at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/katrina/index.htm. Additional questions/concerns may be addressed to David Curren or Scott Cooper at NIH Grants Hurricane Recovery by phone at 301-435-0949 or via e-mail at nihghr@nih.gov.

The grantee institution has the authority under all mechanisms supported by NIH to transfer substantive programmatic work to a 3rd party (by consortium agreement) without prior approval from NIH under the following conditions: 1) The consortium is not a foreign component and 2) the addition of the consortium would not result in a change of scope. Accordingly, these actions must be coordinated with your institution.

If the action requires additional funds, the grantee must contact the Institute or Center with a prior approval request. As with any change in a project, if the grantee has any questions or concerns regarding an action, they are advised to contact their NIH Program Officer for scientific questions and the Grants Management Specialist for administrative issues. Prior approval information can be found in the Grants Policy Statement at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2003/NIHGPS_Part7.htm.

In cases where funds are needed for A&R, you may request such support in an administrative supplement. As with other administrative supplement requests for this recovery, the grantee institution should confirm in writing that the requested support does not represent a duplication of benefits, e.g. from insurance.

In addition, the grantee is allowed to rebudget up to $500,000 for A&R in a single budget period unless such rebudgeting would constitute a change in scope. Whether this constitutes a change in scope is best determined through discussion with the relevant project officer. Final charges for A&R must reflect offsets of all recoveries from other parties (insurance).

If the rebudgeting results in an A&R project exceeding $500,000, NIH will consider the rebudgeting to be a change in scope. The grantee must then submit the documentation specified in “Construction Grants” in the NIH Grants Policy Statement to the NIH Institute or Center. This Construction section of the NIH Grants Policy Statement may be found at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2003/NIHGPS_Part9.htm#_Toc54600155.

After a full assessment of the status and requirements for a project can be determined, investigators should contact their NIH program official to discuss the status of the project and what is needed to resume productive research (in accordance with the approved aims of the project.)

The NIH will consider administrative supplements to provide for major shared resources. Leasing may provide institutions with the ability to resume some core activities fairly quickly and delay more significant costs until sufficient funding can be secured.

Where there have been significant losses to animals and/or unique research tools and repositories of information, investigators should work with their project officers to develop a plan to determine what must be restored in order for the research to continue. The focus should be on what needs to be replaced in order to resume approved research, even if this does not restore everything that was lost. If necessary, an administrative supplement will be considered to add funds and time.

If you have shared a resource in the past, it may be possible to make use of that avenue. For example it may be possible to restore a line of animals from a pair that were shared with another researcher or other research tools and data that has been shared and could now be regained. You may also have your investigators explore the links to the various scientific resources that are available from NIH Institute and Center home pages.

Although institutions do need to report animal harm or death as a result of the Hurricane, OLAW is temporarily waiving the requirement for prompt reporting to allow institutions affected by Katrina to focus their efforts on recovery, assessment of damage, and stabilization of programs. Institutions should report when feasible, and after they have had opportunity to fully determine the extent of losses.

As of 9/14/05, two supplemental appropriations for disaster relief have been enacted. Additional supplemental appropriations may be introduced as clean-up and restoration needs are more fully known. The NIH is working with the Department of Health and Human Services to make our researcher needs are known. In the interim, critical needs should be addressed with the funds available from the current award (if at all possible).

As soon as investigators and institutions are able to assess the damage to their NIH-supported research programs and communicate with NIH Program staff, NIH will consider administrative supplement requests for extensions in time that include personnel costs; and replacement of equipment, supplies and unique resources damaged or lost as a result of the storm.

Each supplement request should confirm that the requested support does not represent a duplication of benefits, e.g., from insurance.

The e-mail request must be submitted by the Authorized Organizational Official (AOO) to the funding Institute or Center’s NIH Grants Management Officer (GMO) who signed the grant’s Notice of Grant Award.

The request must reflect the complete grant number in the subject line; include the name of the grantee, the name of the initiating PI, the PI’s telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address; and comparable identifying information for the AOO.

Requests may also be submitted using the PHS-398 face page, budget page, and budget justification page, but in all cases requests should be sent to the GMO in the Institute or Center that made the award. Under no circumstances should requests be sent to the Center for Scientific Review.

The effect of the three month extension of the Federal Cash Transaction reports (PSC 272 Report) deadline is to extend this deadline to February 15, 2006.

This extension does not apply to any statutory period outside of the federal agency's discretion as described in 37 CFR 401.14(c). This extension will also apply to annual utilization reports where required by individual agencies (under 37 CFR 401.14(h).